Make time to act against potential flu pandemic

THE NEW REPORT on planning for an influenza pandemic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes for sobering reading indeed.

While the United States has been fortunate in not having to deal with a major flu pandemic for nearly 90 years, the CDC report underscores just how greatly an outbreak along the lines of the 1918 pandemic could disrupt life, including life in the workplace. With schools shut down perhaps for months, and authorities recommending that face-to-face contact be limited--both possible responses suggested in the report--workplace disruptions could be massive.

Fortunately, there is time to plan.

Risk managers and others charged with emergency planning responsibilities would do well to heed the report's recommendations. They should be making arrangements for teleconferencing to replace face-to-face meetings if so required, and modifying work practices to place greater emphasis on telecommuting or staggered work hours to reduce interpersonal contact and thus slow the spread of disease.

The question of whether a flu pandemic will strike may continue to be preceded with an "if" rather than a "when." But that's certainly not a given by any means, and risk managers should make time now to take reasonable steps to assure that their enterprises will be in the best possible position to emerge from the outbreak as quickly as possible.